"Culture Shock"

September 6, 1989

I read with interest your article "Culture Shock Hits Health Care" (Aug. 19, Part I). I applaud acknowledging the need for medical personnel on all levels to recognize and comply with cultural differences and beliefs in dispensing Western medicine effectively. However, I believe an important issue was given short shrift. The article cites a foreign patient's concern that antibiotics are "too strong." Doctors are said to view some foreign birth control methods as "unwise." Also, from the article, "A doctor who chastises someone for using a folk remedy is . . . wasting a chance to gently educate him."

January 27, 2011 | By Meg James, Los Angeles Times

In the NBC sitcom "30 Rock," the self-absorbed television chief executive, played by Alec Baldwin, obsesses over what will happen to his career when his company ? NBC ? is taken over by Kabletown, a fictional cable systems operator from Philadelphia. On Friday the real-life cable company from Philadelphia ? Comcast Corp. ? assumes control of NBC Universal, the real-life entertainment colossus that is featured in the show. And while Steve Burke, the new chief executive of NBC Universal, is a fan of "30 Rock," one of his priorities will be to reform the NBC Universal corporate culture, one that has condoned politicking and aggrandizement, the very workplace parodied by the sitcom.

September 23, 2010 | By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

One thing connects the protagonists of the comedies "$# ! My Dad Says" and "Outsourced," premiering Thursday on CBS and NBC, respectively: They owe money on student loans, which limits their life choices to moving in with Dad, in the first instance, and moving to India, in the second. Otherwise, these series are as different as tomatoes and ketchup, with the distinction that both tomatoes and ketchup are good, but one of these shows is not. "Outsourced" (which I think of as the tomato in the simile above)